Today is Begles day! The event will start at 5:30PM at Dr. Amy Ellis’ home! If you can, please bring a dish to share and some drinks! Can’t wait to see you!
Mathematics Education Student Association at UGA
MESA Posts
Hi MESA Members,
Hopefully you are planning to attend the biannual MESA Kickball game and cookout THIS Saturday, April 29, from 10:00am to 1:00pm. MESA will be providing the burgers, hot dogs, condiments and drinks, and we invite you to show off your cooking skills by bringing your favorite dish to share. The potluck and playing part are totally optional, so if you prefer to show off your shopping skills, or simply grace us with your presence and cheer or watch instead of play, that is perfectly fine too.
Please RSVP by Wednesday 4/26 by using the following link:
https://docs.google.com/spread
Your response is greatly appreciated, as it will really help us to plan to have enough food and drinks for everyone but you can still show up if you do not RSVP! The game will be at the UGA Intramural Field #3 and the cookout will be at the Family Housing Community Room. Please feel free to bring your family and friends to this fun event!
Kindest regards,
Sheri
Begles is this coming Friday, March 3, and hopefully you are planning on attending. If you have a favorite dish or something special to drink that you would like to share, you can use the following link to RSVP:
https://docs.google.com/spread
Of course, please plan to come even if you are not bringing something, as there is always plenty to share!
On Tuesday, January 31st, Dean Stevenson (current PhD student in Mathematics Education at UGA) gave his talk titled:
A, B, C, D, and F: Meaningful Grades or Random Letters?
To watch the talk, please go here! If you have comments, questions, or would like a copy of the slides from the presentation, please contact Dean directly.
Abstract:
“Johnny is failing my class. He would have an ‘A’ but he won’t do his homework. He gets an ‘A’ on every test, he just won’t do what I ask him to do.”
-High School History Teacher, 2013, Parent/Teacher Conference
Based on this quote, what grade do you think Johnny deserves? An “F”? An “A”? Something in between? Contemplating the answer to this and similar questions is the premise of this professional development session. By attending, it is my hope that you will critically reflect on the way you approach both assessment (how you determine what a student knows) and grading (how you communicate what a student knows). The presentation will include several activities, a handful of thought provoking questions, and a brief outline of Standards-Based Grading.
Dean Stevenson is a former high school mathematics teacher in Virginia and was part of a team that lead professional development sessions on assessment practices. Dean is hoping to incorporate Standards-Based Grading (SBG) into his research while at UGA to see how SBG impacts both teachers and students.
We are excited to announce that Dr. Michael Oehrtman from Oklahoma State University will be visiting next week and giving a colloquium!
When: Tuesday, January 31st 4pm
Where: Aderhold Room 229
What: The talk title and abstract will to be sent later this week
Dr. Oehrtman is also available to talk with students and faculty outside of the scheduled colloquium. Please send us an email to let us know if you would like to join Dr. Oehrtman for lunch, dinner, or discussion outside of the scheduled event.
We look forward to seeing you next week.
Monday, January 9th, 4pm Room 229, Aderhold Hall
Double negative: Two classroom episodes, two analytic frameworks, and two pedagogical recommendations concerning negative number operations
Abstract:
The teaching and learning of negative integer operations brings into play many important issues in mathematics education. These include the generalization and revision of prior knowledge about natural numbers, the teaching of material that is conventional rather than provable, the use of patterns as a form of justification, and the acceptance of “numbers” whose mathematical reality stems from an axiomatic system rather than a concrete physical model. Anna Sfard has written that “learning about negative numbers involves a transition to a new, incommensurable discourse.”
I will present a tenth-grade classroom episode introducing negative integer exponents, analyzing the teacher’s strategies and the students’ reactions in the framework of the Necessity Principle of Harel’s DNR system, which states: In order for students to learn what we intend to teach them, they must have a need for it, where “need” means intellectual need, not social or economic need. This will be compared and contrasted with a similar episode on negative integer multiplication analyzed by Sfard in terms of her own “commognitive” framework. I will suggest reasons why pattern-based justifications may not address students’ intellectual needs, and alternative pedagogical strategies for promoting student reasoning about new mathematical conventions.
The talk is based on joint work with Evan Fuller and Guershon Harel.
You are cordially invited to what promises to be one of the best events of the year: The Principals’ Panel. The event will be on Tuesday, January 10th, at 6:30PM in Aderhold Hall (Room 229). Here is information on what to expect:
A panel of principals (secondary and middle grades) will be in Aderhold Hall to take questions about their perspectives on a variety of issues, including the culture of their particular school, what is expected from mathematics and science teachers, and what the school expectations are regarding teacher collaboration and professional development, to name a few. Additionally, those who attend will have the opportunity to ask questions and will have some time to meet individually with the panel participants.
Current attendees include:
Philip Brown, Ph.D., Principal – North Oconee High School
Al Darby, Ph.D., Principal – Winder-Barrow High School
Ted MacMillan, Principal – Clarke Middle School
Melanie H. Sigler, Principal – Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School
M. Marie Yuran, Principal – Clarke Central High School
We hope to have an additional two principals present with at least one from Barrow County. This promises to be a great event so we hope to see you there!
The link to the Facebook event can be found here.
Please join us for a colloquium with Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez on Tuesday, October 25th 11:15am–12:15pm in Aderhold Hall Room 520.
Title:
Rehumanizing Mathematics: Should That Be Our Goal?
Abstract:
Mathematics has always been a human endeavor, a way in which we make sense of the world around us and come to appreciate its beauty and our interconnectedness with others, including humans, plants, animals, rocks, and other living beings. But, school mathematics often presents a different view of this activity and our efforts to get students to do mathematics can be viewed as dehumanizing. In this talk, I will discuss the subtle (and not so subtle) ways in which mathematics teachers, parents, learners, and researchers can be complicit with dehumanizing practices. I will also share some of the ways we can heal through reimagining mathematics with an alternate vision.
This past Thursday, September 8, 2016, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Elise Lockwood from Oregon State University for our first fall colloquium! The video of her talk can be found here. Details on Dr. Lockwood’s talk are below.
Dr. Elise Lockwood giving the introduction to her fantastic talk
to UGA students and faculty
Title:
Investigating Students’ Generalizing Activity: Two Contrasting Cases from and Undergraduate Combinatorial Context
Abstract:
Dr. Elise Lockwood provides two contrasting cases of students who solved a series of combinatorial tasks that were designed to facilitate generalizing activity. In these cases, each student generated what externally appeared to be the same representation – a general outcome structure that both students spontaneously developed. However, upon further examination, the ways in which the two students’ understood and subsequently used the general representation differed significantly. Lockwood seeks to explain these differences by identifying two types of relating that emerged in the study, and by connecting this relating to Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction. By comparing and contrasting these students, we gain insight into the kinds of activity that promote both efficacious generalization and robust combinatorial reasoning. Lockwood concludes with implications and directions for further research.
Thanks to Dr. Jim Wilson and his lovely wife for opening the doors of their home to host our first Begles gathering this year. If you have a favorite dish you would like to share, please bring it, and together we will create a memorable evening. To RSVP, please sign up on this google sheet! If you are not bringing a dish, that is okay, just leave that part blank! Please spread the word to other MESA members and Mathematics Education faculty, staff, and students.
We hope to see you there!
WHO:
Mathematics Education Students & Faculty, as well as family and friends
WHEN:
Friday, September 23, 2016
5:30 – 8:30 pm
WHERE:
290 Hampton Ct, Athens, GA
(Dr. Jim Wilson’s house)